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COFTEIGHT DIOFOSIT. 




GENERAL PORF1RIO DIAZ, President of Mexico 



Hatto of ©ottmrroro 



A Study in the Development 
of Mexico 




By JASPER T. MOSES 

President 

The Christian Institute 

Monterrey, Mexico 



Published by 

The Christian Woman's Board of Missions 

Indianapolis, Ind. 



M' 



ti«MRY of CONGRESS? 

Two Cooles Received 

SEP 6 «90f 

. Cooyrtrht Bntry 

JuXzc,/f01 

CLASS A XXC, lis, 

/£2376 

COPY D. 



Copyright 1907, 

By the Christian Woman's Board of Missions. 

First Edition, August, 1907. 




©o Hg Hotter 

Who has ever been my greatest 
inspiration and help, and to 

Pioneer Missionary to Mexico, 
always a kindly friend and wise 
counsellor, this little volume is 
affectionately dedicated. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2010 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/todayinlandoftomOOmose 



CONTENTS 

Foreword vii 

List of Illustrations ix 

Chapter I— The Rise of a Nation 1 

Chapter II— The Country and the People 9 

Chapter III— Men and Manners 15 

Chapter IV— Family Life. 23 

Chapter V— Street Scenes 29 

Chapter VI— Education . 37 

Chapter VII— Cities . 43 

Chapter VIII— Feasts and Skulls 49 

Chapter IX— Protestant Missions in Mex- 
ico 57 

Chapter X— The Work of the Disciples in 

Mexico 67 

Bibliography 81 



T 



FOREWORD 

1 HOUGH some have called Mexico the "land 
of the manana" (to-morrow), in a half 
joking way, because of the leisurely habits 
of her people, the writer had no such thought when 
christening this little volume. Mexico is full of 
promise not yet realized, of aspirations only half 
felt. Great as is her present, the future, the to- 
morrow, has far greater things in store. 

We have tried to put in words a few of our im- 
pressions of Mexico and of her people. We have 
not consulted encyclopedias nor histories in prepar- 
ing what is herein set down. Should the reader 
wish statistics or mere data of any special kind, 
he is free to do this. He may be further assisted 
by the brief bibliography at the close of the book. 

If a foreigner who had lived in New England 
some three years, had visited a week in New York 
and Washington and had seen Chicago, should at- 
tempt to generalize on American traits and insti- 
tutions, he would be somewhat in the position of 
the present writer. Yet many Europeans have 
written volumes on a much shorter acquaintance 
with America and still survive. If the things that 
have impressed us in northeastern Mexico are not 
equally true more than a thousand miles to the 
south, remember that it is a far cry from Boston to 



Vlll FOREWORD. 

Butte, and that some marriage customs in Salt 
Lake City are not looked upon with favor as far 
west as Buffalo. 

The picturesque and historic features of old 
Mexico that have been described by so many tour- 
ist authors have not been dwelt upon at length. We 
have tried to show the Mexican people as they are 
and to give some idea of their struggles and aspira- 
tions, of their daily life and of the forces that are 
so rapidly changing Mexico's to-day and ushering 
in her brighter io-morrow. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

General Porfirio Diaz Frontispiece ^ 

Religious Procession in a Mexican Village, 

Opposite page 4 " 

Military Parade in Mexico City 6 

Returning from Market on Canal 10 

Studies in Peon Architecture 12 

Mountain Scenery at Monterrey 16 

Plaza and Street Cars, Monterrey 20 

Peons Working in a Trench 24 

Entertaining an American Visitor 24 

MexiCxIN Ox Carts 24 

Public Washing Place, Monterrey 28 y 

Patio op a Mexican Home 30 

Market Bridge at Monterrey 32 / 

Cargadores Resting Beside Their Burdens. . . 32 

Street Market Scene 34 

Public Letter AVriter and Curbstone Croup. 34 

On the Doorstep op a Humble Home 38- 

Public Buildings in Mexico City 40 

Professor Andres Osuna 42 

Class in Presbyterian Coi uege, Coyoacan ... 42 

Street Scenes in Mexico City 44 

Picturesque Mexican Cities 46 v 

Market Stall— A Generous Assortment. ... 50 
Monterrey Cathedral 54 



x list of illustrations. 

Hanging op Judas on Holy Week 54 

A Mexican Cemetery 54 

Methodist Church and School, Pachuca. ... 60 

A Family of Mexican Disciples 60 

Group op Mission Buildings in Mexico City 62 
School Building and Playground, Christian 

Institute 66 

T. M. Westrup and Family 70 

Evangelist Jimenez and Family 74 

A Village Outstation 74 

Some Pupils and Teachers of the Christian 

Institute 76 



Today in the Land of Tomorrow 



i> 



I 

THE RISE OF A NATION 

MEXICO is a land of contrasts and of sur- 
prises, of deserts and of gardens, of hov- 
els and of palaces. With the oldest civ- 
ilization on our continent, her renascence of en- 
lightenment and of advancement has been the 
most recent and withal the most remarkable. In 
the middle of the sixteenth century, when that 
part of North America now occupied by our great 
Anglo-Saxon commonwealth was a howling wilder- 
ness, peopled only by savages, there were cities in 
Mexico to which had been transplanted much of 
Latin civilization, where already schools and 
hospitals were established and where great churches 
and cathedrals that were to outlast the centuries 
were in course of erection. 

"Whence then the difference between the com- 
munities founded by our Puritan fathers and those 
of the Spanish conquistador es ? Was not the civili- 
zation of Spain, influenced as it was by contact 
with the Moors and other foreigners, equal to that 
of Elizabethan England? We know that in the 
Europe of that day the influence of Spain, the 
glamour of her power and her riches, outshone that 
of the little island kingdom. Was not the roman- 



2 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

tic adventurer, Cortez, who subdued whole nations 
by his victorious sword, capturing vast treasures 
and enslaving thousands of luckless aborigines, a 
far greater figure than that other soldier, the 
stalwart but prosaic Puritan, Miles Standish, whose 
greatest battles were at best mere skirmishes with 
the Indians, and who even engaged another man 
to do his love-making ? 

The difference lies in the motives for the estab- 
lishment of these two colonies- as well as in the 
characters of the men who founded them. The 
Puritans came to establish a state where God might 
be worshiped in freedom of conscience and where 
equal rights for all might prevail. The Spaniards 
sought wealth and power, the means to gratify their 
selfish desires. Secondarily they came to establish 
a system of religious bondage under which Europe 
had groaned for centuries, whose logical outcome 
was the Inquisition, with all its bloody horrors 
and the even worse deadening of the moral and 
spiritual faculties of the people that must ever 
come where a system of dead works and of mean- 
ingless penances takes the place of a heartfelt faith 
in a living and personal Christ. The best men of 
England came to make their homes in the new 
world. They brought their families with them. As 
soon as their modest cabins had been built, with 
their own hands they erected the church and the 
schoolhouse. The leaders of the Spanish colony 
came only for a few years or until they could amass 
enough wealth from the slave labor of the natives 



THE RISE OF A NATION. 3 

or from their plundering expeditions to return and 
lead a life of luxury in Spain. While John Eliot 
toiled long- years to learn the Indian tongue and 
to translate the Bible, the Spaniards baptized the 
natives by the thousand, giving them the choice 
of Rome or of death. For them the Bible was an 
unknown book and their worship a meaningless 
adoration of the glittering images of the Virgin 
and of the saints. Most of them continued to 
worship their former idols in secret or to adore 
images in Romish shrines that were merely old 
Aztec idols rechristened and newly garbed. 

With such a foundation laid, is it any wonder 
that the builders of the Mexican nation have had 
a difficult task ? We sometimes think that our noble 
Washington struggled against great odds in the 
achievement of American independence. His task 
was not a tithe so difficult as that heroicly begun 
by Hidalgo and after so many years of struggle 
completed by the inflexible Juarez. The American 
colonies had always enjoyed a large measure of 
liberty. Their citizens were self-reliant, vigorous, 
ready to act. Even the clergy were in sympathy 
with the revolution. Men of wealth like Robert 
Morris lent their aid and great statesmen that were 
the wonder and admiration of Europe represented 
our cause abroad and guided affairs at home. 
France was our ally, and we had a navy that was 
no mean factor throughout the struggle. 

Mexico had none of these advantages. Like a 
pall over the whole land lay the influence of the 



4 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

church and clergy, ever fully enlisted on the side 
of tyranny and the constant foe of the republic 
through all the years, even now quiescent only 
because of necessity. At the beginning of the 
nineteenth century the church owned nearly half 
of the real and personal property of Mexico. 
The Catholic Bank in the City of Mexico was the 
financial institution of the country. Without 
its sanction and aid no large enterprise could be 
put through. Every town of any size had its mon- 
astery or nunnery with great adjoining estates that 
were free of taxation and whose occupants literally 
lived off of the people. The clergy were not only 
exempt from taxation, but they levied tithes on all 
of the laity. They were not subject to the ordinary 
civil courts, but must be tried before their own 
tribunals, where of course they usually went free. 
A large part of the people were tenants of the 
church, and strict conformity with the existing 
state of affairs was one of the prices of their exis- 
tence. The Inquisition was still in full sway, and 
any person suspected of liberal sentiments, either 
political or religious, was haled before one of its 
secret tribunals, perhaps never to be heard of 
again. 

September 16th, 1810, is the date in Mexican 
history that corresponds to our Fourth of July. 
Then the patriot priest, Hidalgo, summoned, his 
parishioners by the furious ringing of the church 
bell at midnight in the little village of Dolores. 
They formed the nucleus of an army or rather a 



THE RISE OF A NATION. 5 

disorganized mob, sometimes estimated at 100,000 
men, who drawn by the eloquence of the venerable 
patriot, enlisted under the banner of independence. 
The important cities of Guanajuato and Guadala- 
jara were captured with much bloodshed. But the 
attempt to take the City of Mexico failed as 
Hidalgo was defeated by the army sent against him 
by the Viceroy. This defeat was due largely to 
desertions and to the falling off of popular support 
on account of the decrees of excommunication that 
had been launched against him by the Church. He 
was later captured and after being degraded from 
his priestly office by the Inquisition, was shot and 
beheaded. 

In 1821 Mexico finally succeeded in throwing 
off the Spanish yoke, but with the aid of the cleri- 
cal party, Iturbide, the successful general, was. 
proclaimed Emperor of Mexico and Roman Catho- 
licism was recognized as the only religion to be 
tolerated in the land. Other revolutionary generals 
soon proclaimed a republic and the empire lasted 
less than a year. Then followed a series of revolu- 
tions in which the notorious Santa Ana played a 
leading part, keeping the country in an almost 
continuous turmoil until the latter fifties when 
Juarez came into prominence with his program of 
religious liberty and for the secularization of 
church property that was not actually in use for 
religious purposes. This Law of Reform, called for 
by the constitution of 1857, was proclaimed in 1859, 
but was not enforced until 1861, when Juarez 



6 TODAY IN THE Lx\ND OF TOMORROW. 

finally succeeded in conquering the clerical troops 
and entering the Capitol. 

The Church party, eager for revenge upon 
Juarez and the republic, intrigued with Napoleon 
and other European monarchs for an intervention 
and the establishment of a "Catholic empire" in 
Mexico. The unfortunate Maximilian and Carlotta 
reached Mexico in June, 1864. They were wel- 
comed with frantic joy by the clergy and Te Deums 
were sung in all the cathedrals. With the aid of 
French troops Juarez was driven into exile and a 
court modeled after those of Europe was estab- 
lished with full ceremony and regal splendor. But 
the dream of an American empire was short-lived. 
As soon as the United States had concluded its 
great internal strife, France was notified that we 
regarded with disfavor the presence of her army 
in Mexico. Napoleon was not slow to take the 
hint, and the young Mexican empire was left 
to shift for itself. No sooner had the French 
troops embarked than Juarez entered the northern 
part of the country gathering an army and carry- 
ing all before him as he went south toward the 
City. Poor Carlotta who had been in Europe the 
summer before vainly pleading with the Pope and 
with Napoleon to do something to save her hus- 
band's kingdom, was now a maniac in her Austrian 
home. Maximilian and his generals with the main 
part of their army were captured in Queretaro on 
the 15th of May, 1867. As an unmistakable lesson 
and a warning to the clericals and monarchists of 




U 

o 

X 



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a. 

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THE RISE OF A NATION. 7 

both Mexico and Europe, the royal prisoner was 
shot on the morning of June 19th, 1867. 

President Juarez and General Diaz entered the 
City of Mexico in the following month. The lib- 
eral Constitution of 1857 was once more pro- 
claimed. Since this re-establishment of the repub- 
lic, the progress of the country has been rapid. 
In 1871 and in 1876 there were brief revolutions 
over the presidential succession. Since the second 
election to the presidency of General Porfirio Diaz 
in 1884, the peace of the country has been undis- 
turbed and its development unbroken. In Presi- 
dent Diaz are blended most of the qualities needed 
for a successful executive in a land like Mexico. 
What a Mexican writer calls "the restless, incon- 
stant character of our race" requires a different 
sort of government from that enjoyed by the more 
phlegmatic Anglo-Saxon with his centuries of com- 
mon law developed by and for the people governed. 
The more volatile Latin temper needs a stronger 
central government and an omnipresent authority 
that will preserve and maintain order. This is 
exactly what General Diaz is furnishing for Mex- 
ico. It is what the country requires, and her pres- 
ent prosperous condition pleads eloquently for its 
maintenance. 



II 

THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE 

AL THOUGH geographically in the tropics, 
the majority of the Mexican people live 
in a temperate climate. The high cen- 
tral plateau is the seat of the greatest density 
of population. Less than ten per cent, of Mex- 
ico's fifteen millions live in the hot belt along 
the sea coasts. The country is shaped like a 
great cornucopia, with its mouth toward the north. 
The greatest length is about nineteen hundred 
miles, from the upper corner of Lower California 
to the furthest limit of Yucatan. While the boun- 
dary line with the United States is about twelve 
hundred miles long, the greatest actual width of 
the country is not over nine hundred miles, and 
at the Isthmus of Tehauntepec it narrows down 
to about one hundred miles. 

The Mexican people are of very mixed blood. 
The Indian strain predominates; modified by an 
admixture of Spanish and other European races. 
The upper class including most of the wealth and 
aristocracy is nearly white, while the lower classes 
are of almost pure Indian stock. There are excep- 
tions to both of these classifications. Some of Mex- 
ico's ablest men, including the great Juarez, have 



10 TODAY IN TPIE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

been of Indian ancestry; but the distinction holds 
good in a general way. There is far more of contrast 
and a wider gulf between these classes in Mexico 
than that which separates rich and poor or educat- 
ed and ignorant in our own land. There is not 
however, any feeling of race hatred as between 
whites and blacks in the United States, though the 
difference in civilization is often more marked. 
The Mexican peons in many instances are lower 
in the social scale than are our southern negroes. 
Mexican society is very different from ours. 
Among the old families who are descended from 
the grandees of colonial or imperial days there 
is little of lavish entertaining or display. Great 
balls or elaborate dinners are almost unknown. 
Family calls, numerous because everyone who is 
anybody is related to everyone else, the evening 
promenade on the plaza to the accompaniment of 
one of the innumerable and delightful military 
bands, frequent carriage drives on some handsome 
boulevard and a box at the bull fight on Sunday 
afternoon, form the extent of the social round. 
Intercourse between young people of opposite sex 
is very limited. They are never allowed together 
alone and do not appear together in public under 
ordinary circumstances. After marriage they be- 
come acquainted. It is the accepted thing in 
Mexico for a young man to "sow his wild oats" 
before settling down to the calm of domestic life. 
It seems to be expected of him and he usually does 
his best to live up to the requirement. Mrs. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 11 

Grundy is even more lenient with the men and 
correspondingly stricter in her views of womanly 
propriety than with us. This applies, be it re- 
membered, to the upper circles. 

With the peon class there was formerly great 
laxity in regard to the marriage relation, due 
chiefly to the expense of the religious wedding 
ceremony. They were taught by the priests that 
the civil marriage was of no avail, was in fact 
no marriage at all. The prices demanded for the 
religious ceremony by the priests were so outrag- 
eous as to be almost past belief. It was no un- 
common thing for a poor laborer to be charged 
the better part of his year's wages for this rite, 
and the same system of extortion prevailed for the 
other offices of the church. The growth of general 
education, the influence of Protestantism and the 
efforts of the civil authorities have done much to 
improve these conditions, though they are still far 
from ideal. 

The Mexican of wealth and social standing is 
oftener than not a cosmopolite. He has spent 
more than one season in Paris and has seen the 
great cities of Europe and of America. If he was 
not himself educated abroad, he is very likely 
sending his sons to college in Europe or the United 
States. His views of matters social, political and 
religious are what he delights to call "liberal," 
though at heart he is apt to be conservative enough 
on certain questions. For a half century the 
brightest men of Mexico have been students of the 



1 2 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

French school of so-called free thought, perhaps 
because this seemed to offer the greatest contrast 
and the readiest relief from the system of religious 
bigotry and dogmatism that dominated the country 
so long. The typical Mexican gentleman of this 
class boasts of his liberality of mind and quotes 
Voltaire familiarly, but in nine cases out of ten, 
he has never even seen a Bible and knows nothing 
of the teachings of Jesus except through the mis- 
representations of priest or skeptic. He seems to 
have no settled religious convictions, though he is 
willing to admit that in a general way Christianity 
is a very good thing; but it is not an affair that 
he cares to bother himself about. Let the women 
and children go to church, oh yes, to be sure, but 
he is a man and above all such puerile matters. 

Except for two or three feast days when it is 
the fashionable thing to go to church, the great 
cathedrals are almost empty of worshipers. Those 
who go are the peons and a few women of the 
better class, and these are often outnumbered by 
the tourists. These women, ever the easiest dupes 
of priestly flattery and insinuation, and the poor, 
ignorant Indians, held by the fear of purgatory 
and bound by gross superstitions that we cannot 
comprehend, are the chief reliance of Romanism 
in Mexico. 

While the better classes live and dress after 
the usual European standards, the peons move and 
have their being in an entirely different manner. 
Their homes, if so they may be called, are usually 





Studies in Peon Architecture and Domestic Economy 



Plate 5 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 13 

built of canes tied or twisted together and thatched 
with grass. Often they are not tall enough for a 
man to stand up in. There is no chimney, the 
smoke of the fire used for cooking escaping through 
the open work of the walls and roof. The hum- 
blest hut is often gay with vines and flowers which 
contrast strangely with the surrounding squalor 
and add a touch of aspiration after the beautiful 
that is pathetic because of its hopelessness. The 
family rolls about on the ground outside the door 
when not sleeping or cooking. The first question 
that usually occurs to the visitor is one of wonder 
as to how they can all get inside the little hut at 
the same time. Here they sleep together, huddled 
as close as they can lie on the dirt floor, usually 
without removing the scanty clothing worn during 
the day. It is no wonder that children multiply 
under such conditions and that the question of 
their paternity is not always easy to decide. One 
of the greatest demonstrations of the power of the 
simple Gospel of Christ is that it can lift men and 
women from such surroundings as these and can 
make them strong, clean-lived servants of the Most 
High. 

Protestantism in Mexico is rapidly becoming a 
mighty factor in the developing of a middle class, 
something that the land has never known before. 
Through the mission schools and through the 
strong moral training of the pastors and teachers, 
thousands have been elevated from the grass hut 
stage to become the heads of . Christian families, 



14 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

living decently, engaged in honorable pursuits and 
looking forward to something higher than a mere 
animal existence. No nation in the world's history 
that was governed exclusively by an aristocracy or 
by an ignorant mob has survived. A sane, right- 
thinking middle class is the hope of any nation. 
This is what Protestantism and general education 
are building up today in Mexico. These two forces 
go hand in hand and must do so, just so surely as 
that in every land where Rome is dominant ignor- 
ance and vice prevail. 



Ill 

MEN AND MANNERS 

ONE of the delightful features of life in 
Mexico is the unfailing courtesy to be 
met with on every hand. The poorest 
peon raises his hat in greeting his equally ragged 
amigo. No one is too busy or in too great a hurry 
to grant a trifling favor, such as a word of di- 
rection or the loan of a match, and to do it with 
the air of a cavalier. Be he millionaire or peon, 
the Mexican gentleman steps from the narrow side- 
walk to allow a lady to pass, yielding the place of 
honor next the wall. Life in Mexico is full of 
little politenesses and ceremonies to which the av- 
erage American is foreign. When one enters a 
room full of people, whether strangers or friends, 
each must be greeted with a handshake and a word 
of inquiry after the health of the person addressed 
and his family. Equally ceremonious should be 
the leavetaking if the proprieties are not to be 
violated. This extends even to offices and places 
of business. It is correct form to shake hands and 
chat a while with the clerk who waits upon you in 
the drygoods store or the grocery. His feelings 
may be hurt if you do not. If your servant's chil- 
dren come to the house they are apt to be ushered 



16 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

in and ceremoniously presented to all the family, 
and they gravely go through the formula of inquir- 
ing as to the health of each and again shaking 
hands on leaving, though their stay may not have 
exceeded five minutes. 

If two old friends who have not seen each 
other for a few weeks meet on the highway, the 
scene is affecting indeed. They run towards each 
other with arms outstretched and embrace fran- 
tically, kissing first on one cheek, then on the 
other, and patting each other on the back. The 
first time you see grown men of venerable appear- 
ance going through this emotional greeting, you 
rub your eyes and wonder where you are; but it 
soon becomes an old story. In some parts of the 
country it is the custom among the rural folk to 
embrace all comers, even strangers who are intro- 
duced for the first time. 

The average Mexican has never been taught to 
value time so highly as it is rated on the other 
side of the Rio Grande. Many an American has 
come to Mexico thinking he could do business upon 
the same terms and in the rapid manner in which 
it is conducted in the States, to return a sadder 
and wiser man. What Kipling said about "hust- 
ling the east" applies with equal truth to the 
difficulty of making things move in southern lati- 
tudes. Business is done on long credit, and the 
retailer expects a percentage of profit that would 
make an American storekeeper's eyes bulge. It 
was formerly the custom with all retailers to ask 




Saddle Mountain 




Photo by scott 



Mitre Mountain 

MOUNTAIN SCENERY AT MONTERREY 



MEN AND MANNERS. 17 

twice what a thing was worth or what they ex- 
pected to get for it. If the buyer was wise, he beat 
down the price, each descent drawing forth voluble 
protests. This has been discarded in the larger 
stores, where prices are plainly marked and are 
generally adhered to ; but in the smaller shops and 
usually in the markets the older system prevails. 

As in some European countries, all Mexican 
shops and stores are named. Some of the titles are 
romantic, others commonplace. A corner grocery is 
"The Anklet of Gold," another "The Garden of 
Eden." Dry goods stores are named after foreign 
cities— "The Port of Marseilles" or of Hamburg, 
or "The City of Jerusalem," the last perhaps as a 
delicate concession to the owner's nationality. 

Except in two or three of the largest cities, all 
business is suspended from midday until three 
o'clock for the siesta. This does not apply to fac- 
tories and the like, but all offices and stores enjoy 
this respite from labor. They partly make up for 
it by remaining open until eight in the evening. 

The men of certain nationalities have largely 
pre-empted special trades in Mexico. The French 
control the drygoods business. The grocers, bank- 
ers and pawnbrokers are usually Spaniards. The 
drug and hardware trades are in the hands of 
the Germans. Americans operate most of the 
mines, smelters and railways. Mexican stores are 
monotonously alike in one particular. A long 
counter stretches across the front, shutting the 
clerks off from the customers. The former usually 



18 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

smoke cigarettes, varying the program by discard- 
ing one that is burnt out to hunt and light a 
fresh one. If the clerk happens to be in conversa- 
tion with a friend when you enter, it is the custom 
for you to wait patiently until he is quite through 
and has concluded all his numerous adieux. Then 
he will delve back to unknown and hidden recesses 
behind the counter to produce what he thinks you 
ought to have. There need be no hurry about 
making the selection for you both have all day to 
devote to the matter. If another friend comes in, 
your clerk will stop waiting on you and will let 
you rest for fifteen minutes or until the friend 
sees fit to depart. 

Mexican officials, even the custom house men, 
are uniformly polite and attentive. They are 
especially long-suffering with American tourists 
who insist on shouting at them in a foreign tongue 
and sometimes in swearing because they do not 
understand it. The American tourist in Mexico 
is often a poor representative of his native land. 
Like the region "east of Suez," he too often 
regards Mexico as a place in which to cut loose 
from the restraints of home and make an exhibition 
of himself. The Sunday bull-fight, for which we 
criticize the Mexicans so severely, is largely sus- 
tained by his patronage. The best Mexicans' are 
tired of this relic of barbarity and it would likely 
fail from lack of patronage in some places were 
it not for the morbidly curious Americans. These 
same tourists swagger about the streets laughing 



MEN AND MANNERS. 19 

loudly at all they see, even entering private houses 
to gratify their curiosity. Their attitude is that 
ot having paid their admission to see the show and 
of being bound to get their money's worth. It is 
small wonder that many Mexicans have a low 
opinion of their neighbors to the north. 

The great social center in a Mexican town is 
the plaza. This is usually in the middle of the 
town and on it front the cathedral, the palacio mu- 
nicipal and probably the leading hotel. There the 
local band gives evening concerts usually twice a 
week, but always on Sunday evenings. Hither 
come all the maids and matrons and the young 
men. The ladies, either in groups or accompanied 
by their male relatives, promenade on one side of 
the broad walk that surrounds the bandstand and 
the young men walk in the opposite direction on 
the other side. Often this is the only opportunity 
that Mexican sweethearts have of seeing each other, 
and many a rapturous glance is exchanged as the 
adored one is passed in the crowd. It is even said 
that notes are slipped from hand to hand under 
cover of the confusion. Plaza night in almost any 
Mexican city will bring out many beautiful and 
well-gowned young women guarded by their watch- 
ful mammas, who are usually inclined toward stout- 
ness and rustle in black silk and laces. There is 
generally a separate walk for the peons inside the 
heavy shrubbery of the plaza where they are out of 
sight of the main social whirl. They enjoy the 
music quite as much as their more pretentious com- 



20 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

patriots and have just as good a time in their 
own way. They seem satisfied to be by themselves, 
not appearing to resent the separation to which 
they have always been accustomed. They ride in 
second or third class railway coaches for which 
they pay a fare considerably less than that de- 
manded from first class passengers, and in some 
cities even have second class street cars and a re- 
duction of fare. 

Speaking of street cars calls to mind the little 
mule propelled vehicles that so long graced the 
streets of most Mexican cities, but which are now 
rapidly disappearing before the triumphant ad- 
vance of the trolley. Open cars with six seats ac- 
commodating four passengers each, were drawn 
by two little mules hitched tandem. The driver 
urged them forward with many a crack of his 
long whip and a continual hissing sound like that 
made by an angry gander. The car would dawdle 
along for a mile until just before a curve was 
reached when the driver lashed his steeds franti- 
cally, making the turn with such a rush as almost 
to upset the car, then to relapse into the same 
gentle and placid motion. The car was always 
stopped by winding the brake suddenly, an opera- 
tion that pulled the mules up on their haunches; 
but they endured it with that patient resignation 
for which their race is famous. How polite the 
conductor was! He would wait for you to walk 
(not run) a block or more so that you need not 
tarry for the next car, whose time of arrival was 




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MEN AND MANNERS. 21 

problematic. He would assist ladies from the car, 
carry their market baskets to the door, and bid 
them farewell with a sweeping bow and wave of 
his cap. 

The real Mexican does not pose for the kodaking 
tourist. He does not affect a big sugar-loaf hat nor 
tight trousers and a sash. Those men who are the 
bone and sinew of the nation rank in intelligence 
and in culture with the men of affairs of any 
race. There is little more reason for calling the 
peon the typical Mexican than for setting the ne- 
gro or the Indian up to represent the citizenship 
of the United States. The writer or the artist who 
is seeking the unusual and the interesting naturally 
siezes upon the more picturesque part of Mexico's 
population. So we see or read little of the substan- 
tial citizens of our neighbor republic. 

In some ways, the American people are very 
provincial. They are slow to believe that any other 
race is really endowed with sufficient wisdom to go 
in out of the rain. The air of superiority assumed 
by many Americans who go to Mexico is positively 
ridiculous. Should a Briton or a German stare 
about on the streets of an American town, com- 
menting freely and contemptuously upon the ap- 
pearance of things in general and of the inhabitants 
in particular, some indignant Yankee would prob- 
ably knock him down. The verdict of the jury 
would be, "served him right." Yet this is what 
happens almost daily in Mexico. 

The "guide-book Spanish" occasionally over- 



22 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. . 

heard among a party of American tourists must 
convulse the Mexican bystanders. Mexicans appre- 
ciate a joke as well as anybody; but their native 
politeness keeps them from laughing at the wildest 
errors of the foreigner. In the States, the broken 
English of the freshly arrived German or Swede 
is the sport of the town. In addressing audiences 
in Spanish, the writer has felt himself committing 
ridiculous blunders, but not a listener would show 
even the faintest smile. Later, they might repeat 
it among themselves as a good joke, and enjoy it 
hugely; but never to the mortification of the one 
making the error. 



IV 
FAMILY LIFE 

riri HERE IS ALWAYS room for one more 
in a Mexican family. No matter how 
-*- many little mouths there are to fill, the 
latest comer seems as welcome as was the earliest. 
This is true of all classes, rich and poor alike. 
A peon hut eight by ten may house a family 
of truly patriarchal proportions. There are 
apt to be three generations represented and the 
last is by no means the least. The babies roll 
about in the sunshine and in the dirt clad in the 
well-fitting garb designed by Mother Nature, or 
in some cases of unusual prosperity, wearing an 
abbreviated shirt. Mexican babies while they are 
bran new are so much fairer than their parents or 
than their little brothers and sisters who have 
taken a few years of sun and dirt baths, that the 
uninitiated tourist often imagines that he has dis- 
covered a child of European or of American par- 
entage. 

In one end of the cane hut or in a smaller 
separate shed, the mother of the household presides 
over a stick fire built between a couple of large 
stones upon which is laid a piece of sheet iron. 



24 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

Here are baked the tortillas, the staff of life in 
Mexico. These are made of corn-meal and water, 
flattened ont between the hands to the size and 
shape of a pancake, and baked on the rude, impro- 
vised hearth just described. The other staple 
dishes are frijoles and goat meat, though the latter 
is rather too much of a luxury for every day con- 
sumption. Frijoles are strong, black beans, not in 
the least resembling the Boston variety. They are 
boiled for hours and finally scrambled with quan- 
tities of lard, all the cooking being done in cazuelas, 
earthen pots of marvelous cheapness and conven- 
ience. The meal is eaten with the family sprawled 
on the ground within easy reach of the pot of fri- 
joles. No knives or forks are there and the only 
spoon is the large wooden affair that was used to 
stir the cooking mess. Nor is there any need for 
plates. What care they for microbes of which they 
have never heard? Each takes a tortilla in hand, 
deftly folds it and dips an end into the bowl of 
frijoles, removing a sufficient quantity for a good 
sized mouthful. Great is the tortilla] It is not 
only bread, but knife, fork, spoon and chinaware 
to the million. Other dishes common to the lower 
classes are tamales, chile con came and enchiladas. 
The first two are rather well known in the States, 
and the enchiladas consist of a filling of chopped 
meat and onions rolled in a tortilla and fried. Cof- 
fee is the universal drink, and is cheaper and of 
a better quality than ours. 

The Mexican of high or low degree smokes 





I. Peons Working in a Trench. 2. Entertaining an American Visitor. 

3. Mexican Ox Carts. 



FAMILY LIFE. 25 

everywhere and at all times. It is almost as com- 
mon among the women as with the men, though 
ladies of the better class do not indulge publicly. 
It is a common sight to see grandmother, mother 
and daughter passing a eornshuck cigarette from 
mouth to mouth, taking alternate puffs in evident 
enjoyment. The children learn to smoke almost as 
soon as they acquire the art of walking. 

The gambling evil Is all too prevalent in Mex- 
ico. Games of chance from the rouge et noir in the 
casino, patronized by fashionable men and women 
in evening dress, where fortunes are made and lost, 
down to the dirty little roulette wheel where a 
penny may be staked, prey constantly upon the 
welfare of the country. Strange to say, the feast 
days of the church are characterized by the great- 
est activity in gambling. In front of the cathedrals 
and close to the most sacred shrines in Mexico 
gambling booths are to be found by the dozen on 
all high days. The holier the celebration the more 
prevalent is this evil and its accompanying vice 
of drunkenness. The police and the priests have 
the same busy days. As in most Latin countries, 
cock fighting is a favorite pastime, and many a 
villager will risk his whole fortune in backing his 
favorite bird. 

It is not much wonder that the Mexican re- 
gards gambling with complacency since it has 
existed in his land for centuries and with the high- 
est sanction. Lotteries are a favorite means of 
raising money for church buildings, and often the 



26 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMOKKOW. 

purchaser of each ticket is granted an indulgence 
beside the "chance" of winning a grand cash prize. 
An oil painting of the Saviour was recently raffled 
ofi. for the benefit of a Monterrey church. Another 
church in this city was built largely from the 
proceeds of bull fights held on land controlled by 
the bishop. A "raffle of souls" is an annual insti- 
tution in some churches. The winner of the lucky 
number has the right to name some deceased friend 
whose soul will be released from purgatory through 
the intercession of the priest. 

The drink evil seems on the increase. Formerly 
the consumption of cheap native wines was bad 
enough; but these at least were reasonably free 
from adulteration and their sale was not pushed by 
"modern business methods." Now the American 
distillers and the German brewers have invaded 
X>oor Mexico. Glaring saloons have taken the place 
of the former obscure cantinas, and the landscape 
glows with the praise of Blank's whiskey. Mon- 
terrey beer, made in an immense plant employing 
nearly a thousand men, floods the land. The. Ger- 
man promoters of this enterprise boast that they 
are doing "missionary work" in weaning the Mex- 
icans from their native beverages to a taste for 
good old lager. The bishop of Monterrey evidently 
took this view of the matter, as he attended the 
dedication of the brewery some years ago and fa- 
vored it with his episcopal benediction. 

The peon is as improvident as the proverbial 
grasshopper. Formerly his wages were from 



FAMILY LIFE. 27 

twenty-five to fifty cents a day in Mexican silver. 
Now he commands more than twice the latter fig- 
ure in many places. But the better wages he gets, 
the less time he wishes to work and the harder 
he is to manage. This does not apply to the indus- 
trious artisans of the middle class, many of whom 
are thrifty to a degree. But the bulk of the 
unskilled labor of Mexico is performed by men 
who are the veriest children mentally, and whose 
only thought is for the moment's enjoyment. With 
two or three dollars in pocket, the peon will lay off 
for a few days' spree or lose it all unconcernedly 
at a whirl of the roulette wheel. Then he will go 
back to work until he gets a dollar or two ahead. 
Most factories and mines that use peon labor keep 
on their books from two to three times the number 
actually needed. They consider themselves fortu- 
nate if' out of this they can maintain a suf- 
ficient daily working force. Some of these con- 
cerns shut down for three or four days after each 
monthly pay day, as they have learned from expe- 
rience that their men will not return to work until 
they have drunk or gambled away their last cen- 
tavo. 

The Mexican man of affairs, the professional 
man, mill owner, or great hacendado, is abreast of 
the times and is growing richer yearly. On the 
streets of any Mexican city you will see prosperous 
looking, well-dressed men differing scarce a whit 
in general appearance from the average American 
capitalist. Formerly he had a European or Ameri- 



28 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

can foreman in charge of his factory or his mine, 
but now his son has returned from completing his 
technical education abroad and is running things 
after the latest methods. There is the young man 
now with the Harvard walk and the 'varsity cloth- 
ing. He has already organized a baseball team in 
his town. The Sundays that the boys spend in 
this healthful outdoor sport are surely better put 
in than formerly, when cock fighting or gambling 
were the chief available diversions. 



V 
STREET SCENES 

THE AVERAGE Mexican town presents ex- 
treme diversity of scene and also much of 
monotonous sameness. There are streets 
where every house is the exact architectural coun- 
terpart of its neighbors, the only relief being that 
some are painted sky blue, others pink and still 
others are adorned with checks or with plaids that 
would make glad the heart of a Highlander. Each 
house is as severely plain and box-like as a cube, ex- 
cept that it carries a heavy cornice, or, in lieu of 
the real thing, an imitation one painted along the 
sky line. Every window is securely barred with 
iron. The doors of the older houses are strong 
enough to withstand a siege with battering rams. 
They usually have a smaller entrance for ordinary 
use cut in the middle of great valves that give 
ample space for the passage of a load of hay. And 
this is exactly what goes through them sometimes, 
for a Mexican house includes within the same walls 
both dwelling and barn. Everything comes and 
goes by the great front door for there is no other 
opening on the street, and alleys are unknown in 
Mexico. In the front hall of that fine house across 
the way is the owner 's automobile awaiting his con- 



30 TODAY JN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

venienee. Step lively as you pass this other house 
for the coachman is bringing out the victoria and a 
prancing pair of high-steppers that have probably 
seen the New York horse show. 

In the evening, when the great front doors are 
ajar, many a glimpse can be caught in passing of 
beautiful courtyards or patios. We lay out our 
yards and gardens around the house, but the well- 
to-do Mexican builds his house about his yard. 
Once within the street door, absolute privacy is his. 
No prying neighbor can spy upon his doings. If 
he wishes to lounge in his shirt sleeves minus a 
collar, no passerby need know it. The house is 
built in a hollow square, each side consisting of a 
row of rooms all opening on a broad interior corre- 
ctor. This is usually furnished with comfortable 
chairs, tables and hammocks. Beyond the broad 
arches of the corrector is the patio with its delight- 
ful greenery of palms and other tropical plants 
and often with a fountain playing in the center. 
At the rear and well isolated from the rest of the 
house are the stables and servants' quarters. The 
house is built for the centuries. The walls are of 
stone, often plastered outside, and at least two 
feet thick. The flat roof is of earth and cement 
laid over heavy beams, and is designed to keep out 
the intense heat of the sun's rays as well as to 
shed water. All foreign attempts to improve upon 
this style of architecture in the warmer districts of 
Mexico have proved abortive. An American 
frame cottage in this climate is a veritable oven. 



STREET SCENES. 31 

The thick walls and roof and the deep shaded cor- 
redores of the native house fit the need exactly. 

In the older cities in the interior of Mexico, 
there are beautiful streets solidly built up with the 
homes of the wealthy, and presenting an appear- 
ance of culture and prosperity that would do credit 
to any city in the world. Monterrey and northern 
Mexico have not yet achieved this, though there is 
much wealth there and no scarcity of palatial 
homes. But on the same street, within a stone's 
throw, are the wretched shacks of the poorest of 
the poor, huddled together wherever a vacant space 
can be found — squatters living off the tolerance of 
the landowners. It is common for a prosperous 
merchant to have his store or warehouse and his 
dwelling in the same building on one of the busiest 
streets of a large city. Sometimes the family 
apartments are upstairs, but often they are on 
the further side of the patio. For luxury of 
living few surpass the great hacendados. On the 
railway from San Luis to Mexico are some of their 
ranches that resemble feudal castles, which they 
really were less than one hundred years ago. One 
of these estates had at that time thirty thousand 
laborers and furnished a whole regiment, drilled, 
armed and equipped for the field to aid in sup- 
pressing one of the earlier revolutions. The 
hacendado has at his call a host of servants. He 
may even have a French cook. He has his own 
physician, his electric plant, water works, private 
tramway to the railroad station and other conven- 



32 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

iences too numerous to mention. He maintains a 
house in the capital, and when the season there 
palls upon his taste, establishes himself and family 
for a winter in Paris or in Madrid. 

The greatest of the fortunes and estates are 
hereditary. While mining, stock raising, the grow- 
ing of cotton, cane, coffee and other products have 
brought wealth to many, some of the greatest for- 
tunes in Mexico have been made in the cultivation 
of maguey. This is a cactus of which our century 
plant is a dwarfed fac-simile. From the juice of 
the maguey an intoxicating drink, pulque, is pro- 
duced after a few hours of fermentation. This is 
the great national beverage among the lower 
classes. It is only mildly alcoholic, but the odor 
is sickening. The back streets of Mexico City are 
lined with pulque shops where drinks are sold for 
a cent or two. That they are liberally patronized 
the odor of the breath as well as the degenerate 
faces of the consumers bear eloquent testimony. 

A Mexican market never fails to show some- 
thing of interest to the tourist or to the observer 
of human nature. Here the Indian type predomi- 
nates, men and women of good physique, inured to 
exposure in all weathers, of erect carriage devel- 
oped by centuries of bearing burdens on the head. 
Faces honest, stolid, crafty or bleared by drink 
bend over the stalls that contain a little of every- 
thing and often not much of anything. Observe 
how the vegetables are laid out in little mounds. 
For three cents you may carry away that hand- 




MARKET BRIDGE AT MONTERREY 




Photo by Sc 



CARGADORES RESTING BESIDE THEIR BURDENS 



Plate 11 



STREET SCENES. 33 

full of shelled peas that is marked out so carefully. 
For a like amount that quarter of a pumpkin or 
half of this large beet is yours. Most of the trad- 
ing is in three, six or twelve centavo lots. The 
latter sum represents six cents in our money. The 
purchases are never more than for the day, often 
only for the next meal. Fantastic pottery, 
bananas, baskets, long green peppers, gay colored 
blankets, pineapples, striped hosiery, eggs, silver 
mounted saddles, chickens, calico prints, oranges, 
tinware, images of the saints and queer shaped 
fruits at v^hose names you can only guess, are 
jumbled together in hopeless confusion. The odor 
of garlic and the perfume of great masses of freshly 
cut La France roses blend with a dozen other 
smells, some of which are best nameless. The con- 
fused din of myriad voices, bargaining, passing 
the time of day, scolding or entreating assails the 
ear. 

Let us step out into the street for a moment. 
Here we see men in leather aprons bearing brass 
tags on their breasts springing up out of the 
ground and racing like mad to reach another man 
who is clapping his hands. He is calling a carga- 
dor, or public porter, to carry home his heavy mar- 
ket basket. The tag on his apron is a city 
license number. You may feel perfectly safe in 
sending the man on any errand if you take his 
number, for he knows that if he is reported to the 
authorities for delinquency it will go hard with 
him. Your cargador will carry a heavy trunk on 



34 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

his head for a mile, running at a kind of dog trot. 
With three or four companions he will transport 
your piano in the same manner. They balance it 
on their shoulder packs and trot along, keeping 
perfect step. 

Across the street is a curbstone group that may 
well claim our attention for a moment. The man 
in the center writing so carefully on his lap-board 
is a public letter writer or evangelista, and 
his duties are important. When you remem- 
ijer that three-fourths of Mexico's fifteen 
millions, comprising most of her Indian pop- 
ulation, can neither read nor write, you 
begin to realize what a field there must be for this 
man's enterprise. He has acquired such skill in 
the composition of love missives that many a youth 
or maiden simply states the circumstances and 
gives him carte blanche. What possibilities for a 
man of romantic temperament ! He will not only 
write your letter but will also read the reply, so 
he is a man of weight and of responsibility in the 
circle to which he ministers. Next to the padre he 
it is who is best posted on the affairs of the humble 
folk. Here is a field for some enterprising Ameri- 
can—to engage a dozen of these men, hire some 
centrally located room and open a "Correspon- 
dence Parlor" with a phonograph going in front 
during the day time and a blinking electric light 
sign at night. Each of the writers engaged should 
be a specialist in his particular line. A little row 
of booths, one for the manufacturer of ' ' disdainful 




STREET MARKET SCENE 




PUBLIC LETTER WRITER AND CURBSTONE GROUP 



STREET SCENES. 35 

replies," another for "proposals," others for "ac- 
ceptances" and for "rejections," would put the 
whole matter on a business basis. There are mil- 
lions in it for the right party. 

To descend from the imaginary to the actual, 
let us investigate that dark, buzzing cloud that 
hovers further down the street. It hangs about 
an ill-smelling little shop labelled carniceria, 
Shades of the Beef Trust, it is a meat market! 
Fighting our way through the flies, which ordinar- 
ily are not troublesome in Mexico, we see the meat 
hanging in ragged strings from a line of hooks. 
Grime and blood are smeared about in generous 
profusion. The meat is sold and eaten at once for 
it has not been refrigerated. It is tough beyond 
belief. Let us not stay longer, for a breath of 
fresh air is becoming necessary. Clapping our 
hands for a coach, we will enter and drive home. 

Mexican towns would be quiet indeed were it 
not for the street venders with their cries. At 
four a. m. you are roused from peaceful dreams 
by a roar like that of the famed bulls of Bashan 
just outside your chamber window. Pan, pan 
calient e is the cry in long-drawn accents. "Who 
on earth can be wanting bread at such an hour, 
even if it is hot ? ' ' you mutter as you roll over for 
another nap. But again comes the voice of the 
disturber. This time it is a vender of the fresh 
juice of the sugar cane or of the maguey. Agua 
miel, agua miel de maguey, is the refrain. 
Then comes a succession of everything im- 



'3d TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

aginable that may cater to the Mexican taste. 
Hardest of all to get used to are the peddlers of 
fresh kid meat. The poor little animals are tied 
in bunches by the legs with their heads hanging 
down. As the man goes along, they utter the most 
pitiful cries, for all the world like the wailing of 
a baby. He does not need to cry his wares. They 
do this for him. Whenever a purchaser is met, 
the kid is killed and skinned on the doorstep, and 
the man goes on carrying one more bloody pelt 
and one less kid. 



VI 
EDUCATION 

IF ANY country in the civilized world just 
emerging from centuries of chaos, plundered 
and ground down by foreign officials and pre- 
lates, with several decades of bloody and incessant 
revolution to further devastate her fields and cities, 
can show a better record of recent advancement 
than has Mexico, let us hear from her. We should be 
careful how we judge our sister republic. While 
frankly admitting conditions as they are have not 
reached the high plane which we enjoy after 
centuries of liberty and uninterrupted progress, 
let us give Mexico full credit for her brave strug- 
gle toward the light. 

Mexico has had schools, even universities, so 
called, for three and a half centuries. But only 
in the last fifty years has there been an attempt at 
general education. Under the rule of Spain and of 
Rome, the masses were kept in abject ignorance. 
The few schools that existed were for the priestly 
class and the aristocracy. The Jesuits and other 
orders maintained colleges in splendid cloistered 
monasteries, adorned with every art of the sculptor 
and the painter. But their attitude toward real 
learning and toward usefulness to the nation is 



38 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

well illustrated in the burning of all the ancient 
Aztec scriptures and historical books that could 
be gathered together, on the alleged ground that 
they were "heathen writings/' thus depriving us 
of these priceless records of an ancient civilization. 
Of course, there were occasional parochial schools, 
even under the old regime, but then, even more 
than now, these were chiefly concerned with teach- 
ing the catechism and the lives of the saints, and 
with inculcating a perverted view of republican 
institutions. 

Practically every one of the score or more of 
states in the Mexican federation now has a compul- 
sory education law. In a few of them this is strict- 
ly enforced, at least -in the larger towns. But 
there are yet many communities where the school 
accommodations are by no means equal to the pop- 
ulation of school age. This is no discredit to the 
authorities, for they are doing all that can well be 
done with the means at hand. A more conscien- 
tious set of men than the Mexican school officials 
would be hard to find. Some of them have been 
trained in Europe or in the United States, and 
they are usually men with ideals aimed high and 
wills set to reach them. 

The common school course in Mexico lasts six 
years. An attempt is made to cover more ground, 
or at least to touch upon more branches, than with 
us in this time. Some scientific subjects that we 
leave for the high school are given in the fifth and 
sixth years, usually without much laboratory work. 





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EDUCATION. 39 

as few schools are equipped for this. The school 
term covers ten or eleven months in the cities and 
the day's sessions are longer than ours. Instead 
of allowing all of Saturday as a holiday, two after- 
noons, Wednesday and Saturday, are given. For- 
merly studying aloud and reciting in chorus was 
the prevailing method of class work. A school 
house could be heard a block away. Now the 
government schools in the more progressive states 
have done away with this, but it still persists in 
many little private and parochial schools. 

Discipline in a Mexican school seems to be on 
a different basis than with us. There is less of 
rule, of uniformity and of system, more of free- 
dom to move about, and little effort at keeping 
silence. The relation between pupil and teacher 
is marked by great courtesy on both sides. A hand- 
shake and a word of greeting in the morning are 
seldom overlooked, no matter how small the scholar. 
The whole class lines up on the sidewalk after they 
have filed out in the evening and bids the teacher 
a respectful farewell, the boys raising their caps 
as if to the manner born. When a visitor enters 
the school room the class rises instantly and remains 
standing until spoken to. They repeat this when 
you leave the room. Mexican children are unus- 
ually sensitive to praise or to criticism. At the 
least word of reproof many a boy even will burst 
into tears. They have never been schooled to self- 
repression as have Anglo-Saxon youngsters. In 
the public schools and in most private institutions 



40 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

the sexes are kept separate. In Monterrey this 
applies even to the state normal school. There 
are adjoining buildings exactly alike, one for 
profesores and the other for profesoras. Wages 
have advanced so rapidly in all of the trades and 
professions except that of teaching that the spac- 
eious buildings just mentioned are now almost 
empty of students. 

English is taught in most of the secondary schools 
of Mexico as well as in the business colleges, gener- 
ally by Mexican instructors. The pupils gain 
about as ready a knowledge of the tongue of Shake- 
speare as our American boys and girls do of con- 
versational Latin. There is a great demand in Mex- 
ico for good English teaching, and some of the mis- 
sion schools are profiting by this. 

After the six years of common school work, 
the Mexican youth may elect the four-year normal 
course, or he may choose the civil college, if he 
expects to enter a profession. If his ambitions are 
not thus high, his education stops unless one of 
the numerous business colleges claims his attention 
for a few months. The civil college has a course 
that may be completed in four or five years; but 
grants no degree. The graduate is then eligible 
for one of the professional schools, several of which 
are in the national capital. Schools of law and of 
medicine are to be found in other of the leading 
Mexican cities. Mexico is the great student center 
of the land. There are schools of medicine, both 
homeopathic and allopathic, splendid schools of 




SCHOOL OF MINES 




photo by kahlo CORRIDOR IN POSTOFFICE 

PUBLIC BUILDINGS IN MEXICO CITY 



EDUCATION. 41 

mines and of engineering, a college of agriculture, a 
military school, national academies of music and of 
fine arts, a national astronomical observatory and 
other like institutions, in this great and historic 
center of the nation's life. 

Not a few of those who are taking the lead in 
solving Mexico's educational problems are Chris- 
tian men, reared in Protestant homes and schools. 
Professor Andres Osuna, Director of Education in 
the State of Coahuila and President of the State 
Normal School, was at one time a minister in the 
Southern Methodist Church, and is still an active 
Christian worker. His energy, tact and patience 
have won him universal respect and admiration 
from Catholics and Protestants alike. Another 
younger man, a member of one of the oldest Bap- 
tist families of Mexico, Professor Joel Rocha, is 
Superintendent of the Monterrey schools and As- 
sistant Director of Education for the State. Prot- 
estantism has contributed many others, perhaps 
equally prominent, to the list of Mexico 's educators. 

Mexico's present degree of progress has been 
obtained only through the blood and sweat of 
a host of self-sacrificing, consecrated heroes. 
While we are awe-struck at the matchless 
devotion of Hidalgo, the father of Mexican 
liberty, and yield our homage to the stal- 
wart courage of Juarez as alone he fought 
entrenched greed and bigotry and in the 
face of public opinion proclaimed religious liberty 
and the downfall of the temporal power of the 



42 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

clergy, and as we see what the firm, guiding hand 
of Diaz has wrought for his native land, let us not 
forget the far more numerous but less conspicuous 
band that has done perhaps as much for Mexico. 
The humble school teachers that in each community 
have been centers of light and of advancement de- 
serve a nation's recognition, and shall at least 
claim a word from us. Without their work, these 
other greater achievements, as the world counts 
such things, would have failed utterly. Think 
what it meant to many of these young men, edu- 
cated, equipped for a life of success in business or 
in the professions that would have brought infi- 
nitely more of financial gain, of ease and of public 
recognition. But all this was given up for the 
routine of the school room. The chance for private 
riches was refused in order that the nation might 
have a better opportunity to prosper. The petty 
persecution of bigoted haters of the newer order 
was patiently endured so that truth might work 
out her perfect fruit in the lives of coming genera- 
tions. These are the real makers of Modern 
Mexico. 




PROFESSOR ANDRES OSUNA 

Director of Public Education, State of Coahuila 




CLASS IN PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE AT COYOACAN 



Plate 15 



VII 
CITIES 

AS IN the ancient world all roads led to 
Rome, so in Mexico the capital is the great 
center of national life. For many decades 
no effort nor expense has been spared to make this 
a city to which every Mexican may point with 
pride. Its splendid public buildings, some of which 
are still in course of erection and others are as yet 
only projected, reveal the interest that the nation 
takes in the dignity of its government. The beau- 
tiful parks and broad, clean, well-lighted avenues 
put many an American city to shame, as does the 
excellent street railway and interurban service. 

The main business streets of the City of Mex- 
ico are built up solidly with massive three and 
four story blocks. Here and there persists a house 
of a century or two ago, still in good condition. 
The old courtyard, once the scene of gay social 
life, is piled high with packing boxes. Trucks and 
vans go in and out of the great doorway that was 
the former entrance for carriages of state. Some 
of these older structures are covered with beautiful 
tiling brought from Europe and laid on in exquisite 
designs. There are a few steel frame office build- 
ings, but none of these are over five or six stories 



44 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

high. The jagged skyline of our American cities 
does not appeal to the Mexican temperament. 

The finest houses of modern build are in col- 
onias, suburbs that are organized as distinct cor- 
porations with strict regulations as to the class of 
buildings to be erected and their occupancy. Here 
are to be found veritable palaces. Further out on 
the interurban lines are homes with spacious 
grounds that contain some of the finest flower gar- 
dens in America. The city is in a perfectly flat 
plain except for the abrupt hill of Chapultepec 
which is crowned by the residence of the President 
of the Eepublic. The altitude is about eight thou- 
sand feet. Consequently it is never uncomfortably 
warm. The location several hundred miles south 
of the Tropic of Cancer keeps it free from extreme 
cold also. There is scarcely a month of the year 
that light wraps are not in demand for early morn- 
ing and for evening wear. The rainfall is abun- 
dant. 

Everywhere are to be seen churches or the re- 
mains of churches and monasteries. When the 
latter were confiscated by the government most of 
the properties were sold to private individuals. 
Consequently many business houses are in the 
lower stories of buildings whose tiled domes and 
carved facades reveal unmistakably former eccle- 
siastical usage. At least two of these structures in 
the City are now used by Protestant churches. The 
Presbyterian Church of El Divino Salvador and the 
great Methodist property at Gante No. 5 are old 





Photo by Co 
Plate 16 



STREET SCENES IN MEXICO CITY 



CITIES. 45 

Romanist structures located in the heart of the 
city. Most of these relics of the constructive art 
of the monastic orders, monuments of which they 
may well be proud, have fallen to less worthy uses. 
Tobacco shops and saloons glare forth from be- 
neath many a gilded dome that once echoed to 
Latin chants and glowed with countless candles. 
In one town of Mexico an old church is used as a 
railway station, and the freight scales occupy the 
former place of the high altar. Sic transit gloria 
m wndi. 

Few cities of four hundred thousand popula- 
tion boast better or more enterprising daily papers 
than are found both in Spanish and in English in 
Mexico City. A goodly number of illustrated re- 
views, literary, scientific and religious weeklies and 
monthlies are published in the Mexican capital, 
where the first printing press in America was set 
up in 1535. Beside the great number of institu- 
tions for higher education that have been referred 
to, the system of elementary schools serves as a 
model for the whole country. Many of these build- 
ings are used also as night schools for the laboring 
classes. 

No American city is more addicted to the auto- 
mobile habit than is the Mexican capital. Autos 
are considerably more expensive there, too, on 
account of the long freight haul and the high 
tariff. One has to step lively in crossing any of 
the main thoroughfares because the benzine buggies 
are not only numerous, but their drivers are unus- 



46 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

ually reckless. If there is a speed ordinance it 
must be very liberal. The combination of auto- 
mobiles and ox carts, which are still used exten- 
sively for heavy hauling, is only typical of the 
contrast that one meets with on every hand in a 
land whose progress is of so recent and rapid a 
growth. 

Not a few tourists as well as those who have 
spent years in Mexico affirm that Guadalajara is 
a more attractive place of residence than Mexico 
City. This second city of the land is located two 
or three hundred miles northwest from the capital. 
It is an ancient city, famous for the wealth and 
culture of its leading families and for the beauty 
of its daughters. The climate is mild, though 
warmer than that of Mexico. The Pacific is not 
far distant. The churches, theaters and hospitals of 
Guadalajara are among the finest in the Republic. 
Fuebla and San Luis Potosi are great cities of the 
central plateau region that are seats of wealth and 
ancient culture. None of these are boom towns. 
Their growth has been steady and conservative. 
While not so modern and pretentious as the capital, 
they are solidly built up, clean, except in the 
slums, and with most of the improvements and 
luxuries of modern city life. 

Next in order of population comes Monterrey, 
the metropolis of northern Mexico, the chief manu- 
facturing city and one of the great railroad centers 
of the republic. The railroads made Monterrey, and 




QUERETARO 




GUADALAJARA 
PICTURESQUE MEXICAN CITIES 



CITIES. 47 

now with her great ten million dollar steel plant 
she helps make the railroads. Two great smelters 
are here that refine the output from hundreds of 
mines, converting trainloads of red clay and rocks 
into gold, silver and lead bars. Flour mills, cotton 
mills, tanneries, foundries, railroad shops, a brew- 
ery and many great wholesale houses, attracted by 
Monterrey's advantageous situation as a distribut- 
ing point, contribute to the city's activity. The 
city is belted by a rim of factories whose chimneys 
ever darken the horizon. These are far enough 
from the main business and residence districts that 
atmospheric conditions seldom resemble those of 
Pittsburg, to which city Monterrey is sometimes 
compared. 

Monterey is in a valley closely surrounded by 
beautiful mountains. It is only twelve hours' ride 
by fast train southwest from San Antonio. The 
rainfall is too irregular to be depended on for any 
kind of gardening, but irrigation from the moun- 
tain streams has produced many fine quintas in the 
western part of the city. Most of the town is bar- 
ren and dusty except for an occasional patio that 
is kept well watered. There are several fine plazas 
in the business center that afford grateful shade 
and whose green trees and blooming plants re- 
lieve the eye, blinded by dust and by the cruel 
glare of the sunlight. Unlike all the other cities 
of its size in Mexico, Monterrey has not sufficient 
elevation to furnish any relief from the long tropi- 



48 TODA.Y IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

cal summer. The winters are mild and delightful 
except in the rare event of a Texas norther venting 
its almost exhausted energies. 

Monterrey presents most of the crudities inci- 
dent to a city of rapid growth at the intermediate 
stage of development. Here and there are signs 
of metropolitan aspirations. Almost equally prom- 
inent are some things more characteristic of the 
middle ages than of a modern city of any pre- 
tentions. Now in the year of grace 1907, an 
electric street railway, sewers and a water works 
system are all being installed. The work is being 
done simultaneously by a Canadian company. 
When these are finished and the streets are repaved 
it is only fair to presume that the city will take 
on a greatly improved aspect. 




VIII 
FEASTS AND SKULLS 

OWHERE is the coldness and despair of a 
religion that recognizes Christ only as a 
helpless babe in his mother's arms or as a 
dead figure nailed to a conventionalized cross better 
shown than in the funeral and burial customs 
among the poor of Mexico. There seems to be no 
gleam of the resurrection hope. Purgatorial dark- 
ness enshrouds the scene. 

When death approaches, the priest is summoned 
to administer the last rites of the Church. For 
this office, as for all others, a fee is usually de- 
manded in advance. If this is not forthcoming the 
poor may die unshriven for all that the padre cares. 
A leading civil engineer of Monterrey says that 
as a child his first shock of awakening to the real 
character of the clergy was caused by the refusal 
of the village priest to attend the bedside of his 
dying grandfather unless ten dollars were sent in 
advance and a coach put at his disposal. The fam- 
ily was not so poor but that they would have paid 
the priest a fee, but they were so indignant at this 
answer to their call for spiritual consolation, that 
the old grandfather was allowed to die in peace. 
That there are good priests, who try conseien- 



50 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

tiously to look after the welfare of their parishes, 
no one would deny. But of the hundreds of priests 
to be seen in various parts of Mexico, few are 
encountered whose faces are benevolent or even 
kindly in aspect. Many of them show unmistakable 
marks of greed and of dissipation. 

Burial takes place within twenty-four hours, 
according to law. Lace curtains are often hung 
outside of the doors and windows of a house that 
contains a corpse. If the family is too poor to buy 
a coffin, one is rented for the occasion. As soon 
as the body has been dumped into the shallow 
grave, the undertaker returns it to his shop for the 
use of the next customer. Among the very poor a 
formal funeral is seldom held for a small child. 
A rough box painted blue with white trimmings 
is carried to the cemetery on the head of some 
member of the family. Sometimes the mother goes 
to the carpenter shop for the little casket and 
carries it home on the street car wrapped in her 
shawl. 

Tramway funerals are common among the mid- 
dle and upper classes. The street railway company 
has funeral cars of various degrees of elegance 
and expense. The funeral of a rich man will call 
out a string of special cars several blocks long, 
and all who wish may get a free ride to the ceme- 
tery. Mexicans are not the only people who in- 
dulge in this form of display, and we offer no 
criticism upon the practice. 

Graves in a Mexican cemetery are usually rent- 



FEASTS AND SKULLS. 51 

ed for five years at a time unless the family has a 
lot. If the lease is not renewed at the end of 
the term, the bones are dug up, tossed on the fer- 
tilizer heap, and the hole is ready for another 
tenant. It is not at all uncommon to see human 
bones lying about in the loose soil. In some places 
the skulls that have been unearthed are set in 
numbered niches along the wall. Black wooden 
crosses, rude and grim, rise from the head of every 
grave. Not only are they seen in the burying 
places; but every spot where a man has been mur- 
dered or killed by accident is marked by a pile of 
stones and a cross. These are especially noticeable 
along the railroads. Sometimes a good sized group 
of them at the side of the track will make you 
devoutly hope that your engineer has a steady 
nerve and is running on correct orders. 
,Railway accidents are not so common in Mexico as 
in some lands that consider themselves more highly 
civilized. Should one occur, the train crew is imme- 
diately arrested. If the matter is not cleared at 
the preliminary hearing, they are thrust in jail. 
Under the Latin law, the accused is not given the 
benefit of the doubt, as with us. He must prove 
his innocence. As a result, engineers and conduc- 
tors are very careful in Mexico and the running 
time of the trains is slower than in the States. 

Mexico is a land of holidays, both civil and relig- 
ious. Often all banks are closed two or three days 
at a time, causing great inconvenience to foreign- 
ers who may want to transact business in a hurry. 



52 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

It never bothers a native, for he adjusts all of his 
affairs to suit the customs of the land. The aver- 
age peon would consider himself eternally disgraced 
if he stooped so low as to labor on one of these fes- 
tival seasons. If he does not celebrate the birthday 
of his patron saint by getting gloriously drunk as 
soon as possible after attending morning mass and 
gambling away all of his cash and as much of his 
wardrobe as is not indispensible, he is no true man 
— he is becoming tainted with foreign notions and 
is to be viewed with suspicion. If he is paid off 
Saturday evening, his Sunday spree is of so pyro- 
technic a nature that he is unable to report for work 
before Tuesday noon or Wednesday morning. Con- 
sequently, some employers pay off on Monday, thus 
trying to shield their employes from the tempta- 
tions of the Sabbath. 

One of the most picturesque of Mexico's Church 
festivals is that Avhich commemorates the sanction- 
ing of the doctrine of the immaculate conception 
of the Virgin by the last Vatican council. This is 
celebrated by the display of lanterns in every win- 
dow of the homes of the faithful and by the out- 
lining of the towers and gables of the great 
churches in the glowing light of hundreds of lamps. 
Purisima Day, as this is called, comes early in De- 
cember. 

The Christmas season is celebrated by posadas 
in the homes of many. These are little pantomimes 
representing the journey of Mary and Joseph to 
Bethlehem and their difficulty in securing lodgings, 



FEASTS AND SKULLS. 53 

which is the meaning of the word, posada. A pro- 
cession carries figures of Mary and Joseph, the for- 
mer upon an ass which is led by her husband. They 
journey about the court of the house, stopping at 
various rooms, which represent different inns, 
pleading to be taken in, but meeting with denial 
until the last room is reached. Here the porter, af- 
ter arguing the matter a while, grants grudging en- 
trance. At the close, dulces, or sweetmeats are dis- 
tributed among the guests. Sometimes the visit of 
the wise men or other scenes of the nativity are 
acted out in the churches and attract great crowds, 
but these exhibitions are becoming rarer each year. 

Probably the most bizarre of the customs that 
persist from the olden time is the hanging of Judas 
on Holy Week. Holy Thursday and Good Friday 
are given to grewsome pantomimes of the events of 
the trial and crucifixion as well as the entombment. 
These are mostly acted out with wax figures, though 
often men are dressed in oriental garb to represent 
the scribes and Pharisees. Judas is disposed of by 
lynch law on Saturday morning. It seems the tra- 
ditional duty of each Mexican baker to provide an 
image of the arch traitor to be suspended in 
front of his shop. The figure is grotesque in the 
extreme, with long horns, cloven hoofs and a 
pointed tail. Sometimes there is a whole family of 
Judases— pa, ma and the children— all to suffer 
alike. The figures are stuffed with fireworks and 
each is provided with a fuse. 

Alas for the commercial spirit of the age ! Some 



54 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

of the Judases that so cheerfully expiated the age- 
long crime of their ancestor, in the streets of 
Monterrey in the present year of grace, bore on 
their backs the advertisements of the enterprising 
donors. One was even adorned with a string of 
lemons, though the decorator probably knew little 
of current American slang, when he handed this 
fruit to poor Judas. 

At a signal peal of bells from the cathedral 
tower, the fuses are touched all over the city. There 
is a sputter, a crackling sound as of many bunches 
of small firecrackers, and finally a mighty boom that 
scatters the remains of the villain, and the bread 
and cakes with which he had been carefully stuffed, 
far and wide over the heads of the multitude. 
Then ensues a wild scramble among the assembled 
small boys for relics of the occasion. This ends 
the career of J. Iscariot until the next Easter time. 

There are not wanting authorities who solemnly 
aver that on the feast day of St. John the Baptist 
the peons take their annual bath. Appearances of- 
ten seem to confirm this report, but it seems scarcely 
credible, for public bathing places are numerous 
acd surprisingly cheap in most Mexican towns. On 
the day that commemorates the Last Supper, the 
bishop of each cathedral town goes through the 
public ceremony of washing the feet of twelve men 
selected for their great age and extreme poverty. 
In some parts, the blessing of the animals on a 
certain feast day is still in practice. All the live 
stock in the community — pigs, chickens, burros and 




Hanging of Judas on Holy Week 



Monterrey Cathedral 




A MEXICAN CEMETERY 



Plate 19 



FEASTS AND SKULLS. 55 

all— are washed up, decorated with ribbons and 
brought to the church to be blessed and sprinkled 
with holy water by the priest. 

Beggars are common enough in Mexico at all 
times. With their hardened, wrinkled faces, pictur- 
esque rags and filth, they present a shining mark to 
the tourist's camera. But on holidays they fairly 
swarm about the plazas, and one has to run a gaunt- 
let of them to enter any of the leading churches. 

Among the quaintest sights in some of the older 
churches in the interior are the paintings that sur- 
round the shrines of the saints. Rude little daubs 
they are, often ridiculous from an artistic stand- 
point, but the story of faith which they reveal is 
pathetic in the extreme. Here is represented a fall- 
ing wall from beneath which a workman is being 
extracted by the virgin of Guadalupe. When he 
heard the crash, he called on her for deliverance, 
and was miraculously preserved. All this is set 
forth in quaint legend below the picture. The 
name, the place and the date, more than a cen- 
tury ago, are all given — enough to convince the 
most skeptical. Sometimes a favorite shrine will 
be surrounded by dozens of these little votive offer- 
ings, each quainter and more credulous than the 
next. 



IX 

PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN 
MEXICO 

THE REAL beginning of Protestant work in 
Mexico was coincident with the outbreak of 
the Civil War in the United States. Before 
that time some seed had been scattered, chiefly by- 
army chaplains during the American invasion ; but 
no permanent work had been done. In 1861, James 
Hickey, a Baptist clergyman of Irish extraction and 
of northern views on current topics, suddenly found 
it convenient to leave Texas by the shortest route. 
He crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico, and m the 
course of time found himself in the city of Monter- 
rey. He discovered a congenial spirit in Thomas 
M. Westrup, a young Englishman, who had come 
to Mexico with other members of his father's fam- 
ily in 1852. 

Mr. Westrup knew the language and the people 
of Mexico, so he became a valuable ally to Mr. 
Hickey. They preached from house to house, ex- 
periencing many difficulties in securing a,nd in 
holding places of meeting. Finally in January, 
1864, the first converts, J. M. and Arcadio Uranga, 
were immersed by Mr. Hickey. as was also Mr. 
Westrup, who was formerly a member of the 
Church of England. The same day a church was 



00 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

organized with five members and with T. M. West- 
nip as pastor. This congregation still exists with 
an active membership of more than two hundred. 
By the end of 1864, Mr. Westnrp had baptized 
fifteen more members. 

In the spring of 1865, Miss Melinda Rankin, 
who had been conducting a seminary at Browns- 
ville, Texas, came to Monterrey. For some time 
she had been sending Bibles into Mexico. She came 
to see if a Bible Society agency for northern Mex- 
ico might not be established at this central point. 
She soon went to New York to report to the society 
and to arouse interest in opening the work. 

In December, 1866, the pioneer, Hickey, died 
in Matamoros. His last request, that he be buried 
on American soil, but within sight of Mexico, was 
granted. His remains lie in the Presbyterian ceme- 
tery in Brownsville. 

Thomas Westrup was appointed agent for the 
Bible Society to succeed Mr. Hickey. His labors 
as a colporteur and as superintendent of native 
distributors of the Word were long and full of ad- 
venture. Often his life was in peril. At other times, 
his books were taken from him and burned by the 
priests. Still oftener, persecutions would arouse 
the interest of the people, and he and his compan- 
ions would sell out their entire stock in a few 
hours. Nearly half of the gospel hymns used in 
the Mexican churches were either written or trans- 
lated into Spanish by Mr. Westrup. 

In 1867, Miss Rankin returned to Monterrey 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN MEXICO. 59 

and purchased a good property there for school 
purposes. She trained a number of native colpor- 
teurs and workers who traveled into the interior 
of Mexico distributing Bibles and tracts. In 1871, 
the American and Foreign Christian Union trans- 
ferred Miss Rankin's work to the Presbyterian 
Board. Under the joint direction of Mr. Westrup 
and Miss Rankin, the work in Monterrey had pros- 
pered and a number of congregations were organ- 
ized in outlying towns. Little was said before 
this time about denominational teachings. The 
churches were called evangelical, different modes 
of baptism being used as the case seemed to de- 
mand. In 1872, Miss Rankin returned to the 
States on account of her failing health. 

In 1869, Rev. Henry C. Riley was sent to Mex- 
ico City by the A. and P. C. U. He had preached to 
a Spanish congregation in New York, so was famil- 
iar with the language. He took the people of Mexico 
by storm, and the work started promised great 
results. ".The Church of Jesus in Mexico" was 
organized along Episcopal lines, and several of 
the confiscated Romanist church buildings were 
purchased. The brilliant promise of this work was 
not at that time fulfilled. The people were not ed- 
ucated to the standards of life required by Protest- 
antism, and there was nothing like an adequate mis- 
sion force to teach them. The churches of this 
mission were later absorbed by the regular Episco- 
pal mission board, which is doing a valuable work 
in the capital and in central Mexico. The Episco- 



60 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

palians a]so make a specialty of reaching Ameri- 
cans and Englishmen in several of the foreign colo- 
nies in the larger cities. 

The Presbyterian Board, which had received 
the Monterrey school work by transfer in 1871, 
was opening other work in Mexico about this time. 
They soon sold the plant in Monterrey, as their 
workers could not stand the climate, removing to 
the mountain city of Saltillo, sixty miles to the 
south. This has been their center for work in 
Northern Mexico. Here they have an excellent 
normal school for girls as well as an active local 
congregation. The chief field of Presbyterian work 
is in the south of Mexico in the States of Guerrero 
and of Vera Cruz. They have important educa- 
tional work in the City of Mexico. Their girls' 
normal school occupies a valuable corner in the 
heart of the city. The theological seminary in the 
suburb of Coyoacan promises to be the leading 
Protestant educational plant in Mexico. It has a 
campus of several acres, well located, and three 
splendid new buildings as well as several old ones 
that will be replaced as rapidly as means are pro- 
vided. The Presbyterians have been long enough 
on the field that they are now realizing splendidly 
on their educational investment in an abundance 
of trained teachers and preachers for the growth 
of their work. 

Dr. William Butler, who was the pioneer of 
Methodism in India, opened the first station of that 
body in Mexico City in 1873. He made the strate- 




METHODIST CHURCH AND SCHOOL, PACHUCA 




A FAMILY OF MEXICAN DISCIPLES 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN MEXICO. 61 

gic purchase of a part of the old Franciscan con- 
vent in the heart of what is now the modern busi- 
ness section of the Mexican metropolis. Like the 
Presbyterians, the Methodists built carefully and 
educated their converts. They have great schools 
in Puebla and in Pachuca as well as in the capital. 
Their work covers dozens of towns and villages, in 
each of which schools are sustained. They main- 
tain an exceJlent mission press. El Abogado Cris- 
tiano, "The Christian Advocate," is the name of 
their weekly paper. It is a credit to the mission, 
and is better in its appearance and make-up than 
most of the secular papers of Mexico. The Method- 
ists have 143 churches, 3,000 members and an 
equal number of probationers and of Sunday 
School scholars. They have 4,000 day school pu- 
pils. Last year they gave $50,000 in gold for self- 
support. Their educational policy differs from 
that of the Presbyterians, in that they make their 
courses and terms popular, appealing to pupils 
from Romanist families as well as from among 
their membership. Thus their schools are some- 
times on a self-sustaining basis and have large en- 
rollments. The Presbyterians, disregarding the 
financial receipts, take pupils only from among 
their churches, and make their school life and work 
strongly evangelical. They expect all of their grad- 
uates to enter active Christian work. 

In the latte. eighties, the M. E. Church, South, 
entered Mexico. They have strong stations in Mon- 
terrey, Saltillo, Chihuahua, San Luis Potosi and 



62 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

Mexico City. Their school work is especially suc- 
cessful, being for the most part under the Woman's 
Board. The Baptists followed up the work begun 
by Thomas Westrup, sending re-enforcements in the 
early seventies. Their strongest congregation, which 
is the oldest of any denomination in Mexico, is in 
Monterrey. They have good work in Toluca, C. P. 
Diaz, Mexico City and Torreon, besides dozens of 
smaller points. Their total membership is over 
2,000. 

The Friends have had work in Mexico for twenty 
years or more. Matamoros, Victoria and Matehu- 
ala are their strongholds. Schools are at each of 
these stations. E. M. Sein, a Mexican, now Sunday 
School secretary for Mexico, is a product of this 
denomination, and is one of the forceful men of 
his native land. The Congregationalist center for 
work is Guadalajara, where a thoroughly equipped 
mission is maintained. Some independent work has 
been done in Mexico and there are missions with 
which the writer is not acquainted. One or two 
of the latter are carried on by European societies. 
The work of the Disciples of Christ is mentioned 
in another chapter. 

One of the active agencies for the evangelizing 
of Mexico is the American Bible Society. It was 
probably the first organization to sustain workers 
on the field. The pioneering done by their colpor- 
teurs often paves the way for the establishment of 
whole congregations as well as for the conversion 
of isolated families and individuals. The Rev. 




M. E. Church, South 



Seven or eight Mission Boards are repre- 
sented in Mexico City by nearly hfty 
missionaries. There are more than a dozen 
Protestant congregations, and more than this 
number of day schools and colleges. Prop- 
erty is held to the value of about half a 
million dollars. 




Christ Church, Episcopal 




Presbyterian Girls' Normal School 

GROUP OF MISSION BUILDINGS, MEXICO CITY 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN MEXICO. 63 

Frank Marrs of the Baptist mission, tells that in 
1903 he was called from Durango to baptize some 
believers who had been discovered by a native lay 
worker. The candidates were members of a family 
who thirty years before had purchased a Bible 
from Thomas Westrnp, agent for the Society. The 
book had been treasured as an honored possession. 
Their conversion resulted from reading and pray- 
ing over the Gospel story, and they had sent for 
the native worker to come and preach to them. This 
furnished the beginning for a good congregation 
in the little town. The American Tract Society has 
published many tracts and books in Spanish that 
have been useful in the propagation of Gospel 
truth. The Los Angeles, California, Bible Insti- 
tute is doing a noble work of love and of faith in 
the issuing of marked Testaments, Gospels and 
really vital tracts. So far as possible, these are 
provided gratuitously. 

The Christian Endeavor movement has made 
good progress in Mexico. Annual conventions are 
held in connection with those of the Sunday School 
Union. These are participated in by the young 
people of the Epworth League as well. An excel- 
lent monthly paper, El Esforzador Mexicano, is ed- 
ited by the Kev. AVilliam Wallace and a corps of as- 
sistants. About 225 societies with over 7,000 mem- 
bers are reported. 

Few of the Boards have undertaken medical work 
in Mexico. The Methodists have an excellent hos- 
pital in Guanajuato, with dispensaries and attend- 



64 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

ant physicians in one or two other places. The 
Southern Methodist Hospital in Monterrey is a 
power for good. The daily chapel services held pre- 
ceding the free clinics attract multitudes of ready 
listeners to the Gospel story. 

The Young Men's Christian Association is thriv- 
ing in Mexico City, Monterrey and Chihuahua. Mr. 
Mott has just concluded a campaign for the raising 
of funds for a great building in the capital. Some 
of the -leading business men and government offi- 
cials are actively supporting the association work. 

There are still many Indian tribes in the 
mountain fastnesses of central and western Mexico 
that have been almost untouched by Spanish influ- 
ence or even by the perverted gospel of Rome. 
Professor Starr, of Chicago University, and Carl 
Lumholtz, a well known ethnological writer, have 
each published interesting volumes about the prim- 
itive life of these people. Mr. Lumholtz was try- 
ing to test the reasoning power of a Huichol Indian 
by arguing against the worship of the sun, which 
prevails among this tribe. The Indian replied, ' ' If 
Christians pray to the saints that are made by the 
carpenters, why should not the Huichols pray to 
the sun, which is so much better made ? ' ' The Bap- 
tists have recently decided to open a mission among 
these neglected tribes. Funds for this purpose 
were raised at their last annual convention in San 
Luis Potosi. 

Within the churches that entered Mexico a quar- 
ter of a century ago, there is now a generation of 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN MEXICO. 65 

men and women trained in Christian homes and 
educated in the mission schools, who are as strong 
for Christ and His cause as any class in the home 
J and or elsewhere. The delightful family life and 
the hospitality of these native Christians must be 
seen and experienced to be appreciated. There are 
Christian mothers in Mexico who have raised whole 
families that have dedicated themselves to the work 
of spreading the Gospel. Martyrs are not lacking 
in the Mexican church. Within the decade men 
have met death for Christ 's sake in Mexico. In the 
pioneer days it was no uncommon thing for the 
evangelist going from village to village to be 
stoned and cursed by mobs incited by the priests 
or to meet with assassination in some lonely spot 
on his journey. 

There are now about 750 Protestant congrega- 
tions in Mexico. The number of foreign workers 
is nearly 300. The native workers number over 
600. The number of communicants is nearly 25,- 
000. There are over 400 Sunday Schools and 15,- 
000 or more scholars. Over 12,000 children are in 
missionary day schools. The total Protestant com- 
munity is estimated at over 80,000. The influence 
of this seeming handful as compared with a popu- 
lation of fifteen million is disproportionately large. 
It must be remembered that these people are en- 
lightened and a large part of them educated. The 
graduates from Protestant schools and colleges are 
taking high rank among the professional men of the 
land. They are even filling important public of- 



66 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

fices. This is the leaven that must renew and 
quicken the great mass now in ignorance, and re- 
tarding the right development of Mexico. Here is 
a chance to be Empire Builders in the best sense 
of the word, to lend a hand toward the ushering in 
of Mexico's bright to-morrow. 




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School Building and Play Ground, Christian Institute, Monterrey 




X 

THE WORK OF THE DISCIPLES 
IN MEXICO 

1HE LAST of the great Protestant bodies in 
the United States to open mission work in 
Mexico was the Christian Chnrch or Dis- 
ciples of Christ. Aroused by the appeals of some 
of the leading women of Texas, the Christian AVom- 
an 's Board of Missions decided at the National Con- 
vention in Dallas, to open a station in Juarez, just 
across the Rio Grande from El Paso. This was 
done in December, 1895. The first workers were 
M. L. Hoblet and Miss Bertha Mason. 

While good was done in Juarez, and there is a 
prosperous mission and a native pastor there work- 
ing under the supervision of the El Paso church, 
the work was transferred to Monterrey in June, 
1897. This proved a wise move, as Monterrey is a 
city of far more strategic value. Since 1897 its 
population and its commercial importance have 
greatly increased. As the chief railway center of 
northern Mexico, it is a convenient point from 
which to supervise work in adjoining fields. 

Mr. Hoblet is still remembered by many of the 
Mexicans in Monterrey on account of his excellent 
command of the Spanish tongue. He did good 



68 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

work with Bible classes among the college students 
of the city. He could labor with his hands as 
well, as some of the furniture still used in the mis- 
sion bears witness. He returned to the States in 
1899. His associate, Miss Mason, a young woman 
of great energy and consecration, won a warm place 
in the hearts of the Mexicans. Although her work 
was mostly in the school room, yet it was in the 
homes of the people and in the outstation work 
that she found greatest joy and success. She re- 
mained with the mission until 1902. Since then as 
corresponding secretary and organizer for the 
Christian Woman's Board of Missions of Texas, 
she has been one of Mexico 's most active friends in 
the home land. 

The station in Monterrey has been unfortunate 
in that none of the American men sent there in the 
past have been able to remain more than three 
years, and some of them not more than half this 
long. At first, before mission property was pur- 
chased, the native houses used were often dark, 
damp and unhealthful. The mission force being 
small and the work to be done large, no adequate 
time could be allowed for becoming acclimated and 
for the study of the language and the people. This 
led some of the missionaries to overwork and to a 
consequent breaking of health. Now with good mis- 
sion homes and suitable buildings for the work, 
either provided or in sight, no one should lose 
health in Monterrey who will take proper care of 
his body, keep cheerful and not overwork. Occa- 



THE WORK OF THE DISCIPLES IN MEXICO. 69 

sional trips must be taken to a cooler climate, as 
the continual heat is ennervating to those bred in 
northern latitudes. The difficulty of securing Amer- 
ican food is a real hardship to those with weak 
digestion. 

From January, 1900, to April, 1901, the station 
was in charge of Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Omer. They 
were succeeded in June, 1901, by Mr. and Mrs. 
A. G. Alderman. Mr. Alderman was a practical 
school and newspaper man as well as a minister. 
His policy was vigorous and well directed. Find- 
ing that the school with its twenty-five or thirty 
pupils had little outlook for growth in the cramped 
quarters it occupied at No. 50 Roble street, and 
that this location under the shadow of the leading 
Romanist church of Monterrey was not the best 
for the mission, he moved the work to a commodi- 
ous rented house in the newer part of the city, 
north from the business section. 

Here the school grew and thrived until in two 
years the annual enrollment reached over four hun- 
dred. A weekly paper, "The Gospel Call," was 
published in July, 1901. As rapidly as he could 
master a little Spanish, articles in this tongue were 
inserted in the paper. Through the interest of the 
physicians of the city, aroused by Mr. Alderman, 
a free clinic was conducted at the mission, and did 
a great deal of good. 

Reading of the position of the Disciples in '"The 
Gospel Call, ' ' Thomas M. Westrup, pioneer mission- 
ary to Mexico, who for several years had labored 



70 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

independently on account of his disagreement with 
Baptist views on close communion and other points 
urged by the radical wing of Southern Baptists, 
found that he was in practical agreement with 
what he read and came to Mr. Alderman to inquire 
more particularly. He and his wife united with 
the mission, followed by several of their children. 
Later, in 1902, Mr. Westrup was employed by the 
Board as editor and translator. The name of the 
weekly paper was changed to La Via de Paz, "The 
Way of Peace." It was doubled in size, six pages 
being devoted to Spanish reading matter and two 
to English. Numerous tracts and several useful 
books have been translated into Spanish by Mr. 
Westrup. La Via de Paz has since been changed 
to an eight-page fortnightly issue, entirely in Span- 
ish. A. monthly edition in English and a monthly 
juvenile and Sunday School paper in Spanish are 
also published. 

The Westrup family and their work and influ- 
ence have been a powerful factor in the growth of 
the Monterrey mission. Probably no foreigner of 
Anglo-Saxon birth has identified himself more thor- 
oughly with the Mexican people than has T. M. 
Westrup in his more than half a century of life 
among them. His wife is a cultured Mexican lady 
of excellent family, and their children have cast 
their lot unreservedly with the land of their birth. 
Enrique Westrup, now pastor of the native church 
in Monterrey, is a man of force and of eloquence. 
He has few superiors in the pulpit among the 




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THE WORK OF THE DISCIPLES IN MEXICO. 71 

Spanish speaking ministry. He has now succeeded 
his father in the active editorial work on La Via 
de Pas. Miss Bertha, principal of the Mexican de- 
partment of the Institute, is capable and efficient, 
a real general in the management of children. Her 
younger sister, Miss Irene, is a born primary 
teacher. Her equal in this line would be hard to 
find among the schools of Mexico. 

Another worker who was with the mission at 
this time and earlier, is Miss Clara Case, who came 
to Monterrey in 1900. Part of the time she has 
taught in the school, but more often her work has 
been that of visiting in the homes, reading the Bi- 
ble to the sick and those who could not read for 
themselves, and training some of the young girls 
of the school to assist in this carrying of the Gos- 
pel message into the homes of their people. 

In July, 1902, Mr. Alderman recommended the 
purchase of a lot for a school building at the cor- 
ner of Isaac Garza and Puebla streets. The lot, 90 
by 140, was considered ample at the time. Its 
purchase was made possible by the generosity of the 
Texas Auxiliaries. 

Mr. Alderman did not live to see the school 
building that he had hoped to erect. On Septem- 
ber 23, 1903, he fell a victim to yellow fever. His 
untimely death was a great blow to the work. The 
epidemic crippled the school and mission work ; but 
the former was soon resurrected under the leader- 
ship of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. McDaniel, who came in 
the spring of 1904. It was at this time that the new 



72 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

school building was erected at a cost of over $15,- 
000, gold. The building, 65x110 feet, nearly cov- 
ered the lot, leaving little space for play-ground for 
the four hundred pupils. Additional lots to the 
west were purchased, giving the school a frontage 
of an entire block on Isaac Garza street with a 
depth of 90 feet all the way. On the other corner 
a house for the president of the Institute was built 
over a year later. In the fall of 1907, additions are 
to be made to this building to accomodate several 
teachers and a number of boarding pupils. 

Mr. and Mrs. McDaniel, like some of their prede- 
cessors, did not have good health in Monterrey. 
They returned to the States in June, 1905. A di- 
vision of the work was decided upon, owing to 
the growth of the school and to the need for greater 
development of the evangelistic side of the mission. 
Jasper T. Moses, who had been on the field a year 
as a teacher in the Institute and as one of the edi- 
tors of La Via de Paz, was made head of the school, 
and S. G. Inman was called to take charge of the 
local church. They still occupy these respective po- 
sitions, though Mr. Inman will soon be sent into the 
field as an evangelist and to oversee the work of 
the native preachers in the various stations, and an 
American missionary is to be appointed to succeed 
him in Monterrey. Others who have served the 
work as teachers in the school but have left the 
field are, Misses Lucile Eubank, Mary Robertson 
and Rena McLaughlin. Miss Elma C. Irelan, who 
came in the fall of 1905 is still teaching, as is Mrs. 



THE WORK OF THE DISCIPLES IN MEXICO. 73 

A. G-. Alderman, who has remained faithfully with 
the mission since the death of her husband. 

The native congregation at Monterrey, small in 
its beginning, has grown steadily in the past few 
years. It now numbers nearly two hundred mem- 
bers. Half of these were brought in during a re- 
vival early in 1907. Considerably over one hun- 
dred made public profession of their faith in Christ 
during the meetings. These lasted for a month 
with Felipe B. Jimenez as evangelist. Mr. Jimenez 
and an independent congregation at Saltillo, to 
which he had been ministering for .several years, 
came into the mission in 1903. Like many others, 
they were first attracted by the reading of La Via 
cie Paz. The church in Saltillo has a membership 
of twenty-five or thirty. They are unusually intel- 
ligent and thoughtful people and most of them 
are in good circumstances. 

In 1905, a work that had been started by one 
of our Mexican ministers from Texas in the mining 
town of Fuente, was taken in charge by the Board. 
Here Eligio Camacho ministers to a band of thirty- 
five or forty. Felipe Jimenez, now located at Sabi- 
nas, in the center of the new coal mining territory 
of Mexico, has a great field and is ministering to 
a number of churches and groups of Christians that 
form the nucleii for future strong congregations. 
He is the right man in the right place. His energy 
and consecration have meant much in the growth 
of our mission. Other laborers must be put in this 
field to share the heavy work, if we are to take ad- 



74 TODAY IN THE LAND OP TOMORROW. 

vantage of the splendid opportunities offered. Sev- 
eral outstations are operated from Monterrey and 
others are manned from each of the outlying 
churches. The newest and most pressingly needed 
feature of the work is the education of young men 
for the ministry, undertaken in connection with the 
Monterrey school. 

The Monterrey church worships in the chapel 
of the school on the second floor. This is a hin- 
drance to both school and evangelistic work. People 
confuse the school and the church and are afraid 
to send their children to the former because they 
believe that it is a mere proselyting institution. The 
meetings upstairs are hard to find and do not at- 
tract the passers-by that throng the streets. Often 
better crowds attend the outstations, held in mean 
little rented rooms, because they can stand about 
the windows and doors, seeing what is going on 
without committing themselves by entering. When 
they learn that the horrible tales they have heard 
about the worship of the Protestants are not true, 
they are ready to enter and hear more. A good lot 
has been secured for church and parsonage, and the 
latter has been built, but as yet the means for erect- 
ing the church building are not forthcoming. 

The Disciples have in Mexico five churches and 
eleven other preaching places. There are 325 
church members, 200 Sunday School scholars and 
425 day school pupils. Twenty-two teachers and 
workers are employed, of whom twelve are regular 



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A VILLAGE OUTSTATION 



THE WORK OF THE DISCIPLES IN MEXICO. 75 

missionaries. Mission property is held to the value 
of $40,000, gold. 

The States of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila are open 
for the message of the Disciples. Of the former 
State, Monterrey is the capital, though it is equally 
accessible to Coahuila because of its railway con- 
nections. Saltillo, the capital of the latter State, 
is only sixty miles from Monterrey. There is al- 
ready a small congregation there. It is an educa- 
tional center, with probably the best state normal 
school in the country, a civil college and three 
Protestant schools for girls. There is a splendid 
opportunity here for the establishment of a secon- 
dary school for young men. We need a mission 
home here, not only for the workers who should 
be located in Saltillo, but to serve as a summer 
resting place for the force at Monterrey. Saltillo 
with its delightful summer climate, is becoming 
quite a resort at this season. Board and rents are 
high. A trainload of Americans from Monterrey 
comes up every Saturday afternoon to remain over 
Sunday. It would be a means of economy to the 
work if the missionaries could have a suitable place 
here to spend their vacations instead of taking 
long and expensive trips north, which they can ill 
afford. 

Towns are springing up as if by magic all over 
the coal fields of northern Coahuila. It is here 
that most of the new stations are being opened and 
where there is the greatest opportunity for service. 



lb TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

AD nations are here. In one mine, over a thousand 
Japanese are employed. Another rises hundreds of 
southern negroes. The Mexican miners receive 
two or three times the wages paid ordinary laborers 
in Monterrey. Scores of bright American young 
men work in the offices or direct the operation of the 
mines. Many of these camps have practically no 
religious opportunities except the meagre work 
done by our overburdened evangelist. That this 
is a new country where we can enter "on the 
ground floor," makes the opening all the more 
available. It is a rare thing in an old and con- 
servative land like Mexico to find new communities 
where the people are bound to no stately church 
buildings and have comparatively few prejudices 
to overcome. If the opportunity is not seized at 
once, it may pass by or be taken by others. The fu- 
ture of the work demands that the Disciples oc- 
cupy these fields adjacent to our present stronghold. 
Monterrey was entered that on account of its 
splendid railway systems it might be used as a cen- 
ter for evangelizing. The work has developed log- 
ically. All that remains is to prove our ability to 
act wisely in the face of this opportunity for ad- 
vancement. Just as other boards have concentrated 
in certain States, and have made a definite impres- 
sion upon them, we can take Coahuila and Nuevo 
Leon for Christ. The policy of scattering the 
churches so far apart that they can not keep in 
touch with each other, and can not be visited regu- 




Some Pupils and Teachers of the Christian Institute, Monterrey 



THE WORK OP THE DISCIPLES IN MEXICO. 77 

larly, is poor business policy and is not necessarily 
good religion. 

One of the most encouraging things about mis- 
sion work among the Mexicans is the enthusiam and 
liberality of the new converts. A large part of 
these are tithers. In March of the present year, 
Sanchez Ramos sent a money order for one hundred 
dollars (silver), to the mission treasury as his tith- 
ing money for several months. This he had rigor- 
ously set aside from his precarious income as a 
traveling herb doctor. Many others have been pro- 
portionally generous. If the Disciples of Christ 
in the United States gave with the same liberality 
as do their Mexican brethren, the income for all of 
our enterprises would soon be doubled and trebled. 

The door is open in Mexico. Men and women 
are waiting to accept the Gospel as soon as it is 
presented clearly and reasonably. The people are 
conservative at first and want to be shown unmis- 
takably that the message is true. Then they become 
enthusiasts for Christ, and are eager to bring oth- 
ers to Him. Their zeal needs to be trained and 
kept directed along wise channels, or it may fan 
itself out. Here the work of an educated native 
ministry is doubly important. We dare not go for- 
ward in any large way until we are prepared to 
conserve the fruits of the work, until a company 
of men is trained as pastors and teachers as well as 
for the evangelizing of Mexico. 



Bibliography 



G 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A FEW OF THE BEST RECENT WORKS ON MEXICO 

A White Umbrella in Mexico, by F. Hopkinson 
Smith, Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1889. A 
delightfully written book in Mr. Smith's best vein 
of humor and of fancy. 

From Empire to Republic, by A. H. Noll. A 
fair historical text-book written by a professor in 
one of the southern colleges. Has maps, portraits 
and an index. McClurg, Chicago, 1903. 

The Maker of Modern Mexico, Porfirio Diaz, by 
Mrs. Alec Tweedie. John Lane Co., New York. 
Elaborately illustrated, covers in a general way the 
history of modern Mexico as well as the life of 
President Diaz. 

Unknown Mexico, by Carl Lumholtz, (2 vol- 
umes, profusely illustrated). Scribner's, New 
York. An interesting account of life and customs 
among the little known Indian tribes of the moun- 
tain fastnesses of Mexico. 

Mexico, Our Next Door Neighbor, by Rev. Fran- 
cis Borton, D. D. A well printed and illustrated 
pamphlet of some fifty pages that bristles with 
facts like a campaign handbook. Price, ten cents at 
the Methodist Book Concern, 150 Fifth Ave., New 
York. 



82 TODAY IN THE LAND OF TOMORROW. 

Campbell's Guide and Descriptive Booh of Mex- 
ico is a gem among guide books. It is well bound, 
printed and illustrated. It contains much that will 
claim the attention of the reader who is interested 
in Mexico, whether or not he expects to visit the 
country. The book contains 350 pages with excel- 
lent maps. It may be obtained by addressing Keau 
Campbell at Chicago, or The Sonora News Co., at 
Laredo, Texas. Price, $1.50. 

Mexico Coming Into Light, by Rev. John "W. 
Butler, D. D. This little book by the head of the 
Methodist mission in Mexico is a thoughtful study 
of the nation's history and growth. It is of pocket 
size and attractively bound, but not illustrated. The 
price at any branch of the Methodist Book Concern 
is fifty cents. 

The Mexico Series of Leaflets, published by the 
Presbyterian Press, 4th Ave. Humboldt, No. 
1323, Mexico City, Mexico, comprises eight or ten 
leaflets of uniform size and perforated at the back 
so that they can be bound together. They are il- 
lustrated, and are well written by various mission- 
aries. Some of them show a familiar side to the 
work not easily obtainable. The price is not stated, 
but fifteen cents in stamps sent to the above address 
would doubtless bring the whole series. 

A Series of leaflets on Mexico is published by 
the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, 152 E. 
Market St., Indianapolis, Ind. (Price ten cents.) 
Besides descriptions of the life of the people and of 
the work being done, this includes a good historical 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 83 

sketch of missions in Mexico, and a map showing 
the fields occupied and the statistics of the work 
done by this Board. 

Twenty Years Among the Mexicans, by Melinda 
Rankin, Christian Publishing Co., St. Louis, 1875, 
is a record of Miss Rankin's personal experiences 
and opinions, rather than a description of Mexico 
or its people. 

Two periodicals in English, Mexico, published 
quarterly by Mrs. J. P. Hauser, Apartado 1291, 
Mexico City, and La Via de Paz, monthly, edited 
by Jasper T. Moses, Apartado 236, Monterrey, Mex- 
ico, have the same subscription price of twenty -five 
cents a year. 

The Mexican Herald is the leading English daily 
of Mexico. It is published in the City of Mexico. 

Modern Mexico, edited in the City of Mexico, but 
published in New York, is a monthly magazine of 
especial interest to miners and investors. It con- 
tains many good literary features and illustra- 
tions. The annual subscription price is one dollar. 



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